‘Piku’ – MyView

Piku theatrical poster

“Insan ka emotion uska motion ke saath judaa hua hai“, (A person’s emotions are connected to his bowel movement) aptly said by Mr. Bhaskor Banerjee (Amitabh Banerjee) which I guess every Bengali will agree to. This movie is so simple and intricately appropriate which everyone could connect to. Myself, a bengali away from home past 6 years, this movie was an escape in disguise (and should I mention, I watched it for two consecutive days!). Hats off Shoojit Sircar!

The movie revolves around a father – daughter relationship who takes shit seriously! I mean it, the movie is all about excretion. We all do it, its vital but nobody ever speaks of it. Well, except the bengalis who can vividly cast their imagination describing every little detail of it. Shitty, eh? We take pride. 😛

As described by her father (Amitabh Bachchan) to every potential suitor, Piku Banerjee (Deepika Padukone) is a financially, emotionally and sexually independent, non-virgin architect who lives with her father in C.R. Park, Delhi. Everything in her life borders with the dysfunctional bowel movement of her father which gets her irritated and exhausted but nevertheless, her life revolves around “Did baba go? How did it go? When did he go?” Torn between responsibilities and her love for her father, she finally agrees to the road trip to Kolkata.

Rana (Irrfan Khan), the cab company owner, ditched by his own drivers decides to take the father, daughter and the “chair” to Kolkata. The road trip is absorbed by the episodes of hissing sound which makes baba pee, the amazing graphical representation of how excretion happens, the Piku – Rana bonding, the mesmerising banaras ghats and the various remedies to constipation!

Another refreshing thing about this movie was the subtle romance angle. Piku and Rana have taken romance all together to a new level, like seriously, no melodramas, no bling songs, just simple and realistic.

The other characters Chobbi maashi (Moushumi Chatterjee), Syed (Jisshu Sengupta) have well justified their roles on screen. A special mention to the singer-songwriter-composer Anupam Roy’s music which is so subtle and blends perfectly with the movie.

The story of Piku does not hold much weight but it stands out because of its brilliant narrative and distinguished performances.

 

‘ 2 States’ – MyView

2 States Theatrical Poster

This is the story of the union of ‘Butter Chicken‘ and ‘sambhar‘, a story which is so cliche in India. Be it the whatsapp era or the old times, Indian parents have always twitched on the idea of inter caste or worse inter state marriages. Truly its not ‘just’ marrying the other person, its rather marrying the entire family!
The story of Ananya (Alia Bhatt) and Krish (Arjun Kapoor) who fell in love while studying at IIM Ahmedabad is also on the same page. The first half of the movie mostly dealt with how Krish was smitten by Ananya’s charm and beauty but could not tell her because he did not want to be the 56th or so rejection (because all the other 55 IITians proposals were rejected by Ananya). And he was also afraid that Ananya might make him her ‘rakhi IIT brother’ which is the most dreadful relation of all! So what does our hero does? He starts ignoring her leaving her all confused. So the girl (after knowing about Krish’s feeling) takes her chances and starts dating him. Lucky IITian? eh? So Few songs here and there with their love stories wrapped in them, that’s all the romance you will be seeing in the movie, next is all drama and action!

So on their convocation, both the families meet and then starts the cold war between the ‘punjabis’ and the ‘madrasis’ (for Punjabis, anyone from south is a Madrasi!). So entire movie goes on and on about persuading his family, her family, her mother, her father, her brother, his mother, her, him, then persuading both the families to like each and everything else in between.
*phew*
A lot of emotions and drama but not much romance between the couple past the IIM days. I mean even Raj and Simran wanted to marry only with their parents consent, but they had their romance in between (Those who don’t know I am talking about the movie Dilwaale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge here). Yeah I know, DDLJ was a bollywood masala and 2 states is an autobiographical, but I felt a little more could have been done in terms of the love in between them, I mean wasn’t the movie’s fundamentals based on love?
To sum it up, its a good watch if you already liked Chetan Bhagat’s 2 States, the movie goes pretty much same of what’s in the book. Alia Bhatt looked gorgeous and she held the movie together. Arjun Kapoor was a bit shaky but you’ll get used to him seeing him on the screen after some time. The cold war between Revathy and Amrita Singh is something to look out for. Altogether a nice weekend flick, not awesome as I expected.